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and free variation, which concerns freedoms a poet may take in forming lines of poetry. I
also discuss some constructional schemes, neologisms and shortened phrases.
5.3 On the phonological level
5.3.1 Verse Forms
This section on verse forms covers the structures used by poets of verse poetry, as
opposed to prose―or free verse―poetry, which does not use formal devices on the
phonological level to the degree of verse poetry. I am thankful for Badirxan Sindî’s input
on this topic which he supplied during our interview.
5.3.1.1 Çuarkî, the Northern Kurdish quatrain
The verse form that dominates the corpus is called the çuarkî, which means
‘quatrain’ (Sindî 2011). It is in every way similar to the Persian form called ruba’i, 59
which is an Arabic word meaning ‘foursome.’ A poem composed of multiple ruba’i is
referred to by the plural, ruba’iyat. A traditional ruba’i consists of two lines of poetry,
each consisting of two hemistiches (or half-lines). The rhyme scheme is AAXA, where
the first line end rhymes with its own caesura (or center point), as well as the end of the
second line (Avery and Heath-Stubbs 1981:9). I have also heard Kurdish poets refer to
this form as çuar beyt, which literally means ‘four lines.’ In this study, all çuarkî poems,
whether originally written as couplets or quatrains, will be discussed as quatrains.
The rhyme schemes varied among authors. Of the Nalbend poems, the most
common rhyme scheme was ABAB, CCCB, DDDB, etc. where in the first stanza the first
and third lines rhyme and the second and fourth lines rhyme. Then in the stanzas that
follow the first through third lines rhyme with one another and the last line rhymes with
59 According to Avery and Heath-Stubbs (1981:11), the origin of the ruba’i is potentially not from Arabs
but from Turco-Central Asia. The constraints with which we are familiar, though, are purely Persian. For
information on the origin of the ruba’i, I refer the reader to the introduction in The Ruba’iyat of Omar
Khayyam by Peter Avery and John Heath-Stubbs, 1981.